1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of content presentation in portable terminals, and more specifically to a method and a system for providing content based on a user's preference.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the significant development of information, communication and semiconductor technologies and their contribution to the supply of portable terminals, the use of portable terminals has rapidly increased. In particular, currently available portable terminals have developed to a mobile convergence stage that includes not only their traditional field of verbal communications, but to other fields, such a data communication and multi-media presentation. As a representative example of the currently available portable terminals, a typical portable (mobile) terminal provides various functions; a TV watching function (e.g., mobile broadcasting) through a broadcasting system such as Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) or Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB)), a music playing function (e.g., MPEG Audio Layer-3 (MP3)), a photographing function (e.g., still and motion pictures), and a data communication function as well as general communication functions such as a voice call and a message transmission/reception. Likewise, as a portable terminal supports many different and various types of functions, a user can use, view or interact with various content through the portable terminal.
Meanwhile, in order for a user of a portable terminal to use, view or interact with a content (e.g., a game, a music file, a moving picture file an e-book), a user typically burst connect to a content-providing server and download a corresponding content. In case a user connects to a content-providing server and downloads a content that the user prefers, the user must first directly connect to the content-providing server, search for a preferred content, and then request downloading of the preferred content. However, as the amount of content becomes ever increasingly larger, the user may be inconvenienced in searching for content that the user prefers. Particularly, in the case when the user does not know an exact name of a content (e.g., the title of a book, the title of a song, the title of a video, etc.), the search becomes even more inconvenient. Further, the user must frequently connect to the content-providing server in order to check whether a new content has been registered that may be of interest to the user.
As described above, according to a conventional art, the user must connect to a content-providing server and search for a content every time a user desires to download a preferred contents or check whether a new content has been registered. This continuous contacting of the content-providing server is time consuming and over extended periods of time becomes an inconvenient on the user in both time and effort.